I inspected the CV axles and noticed the grease was very sparse and almost hard to the touch. I decided to regrease them using a CV axle boot kit. The kit includes a boot, grease, and a snap ring.

The axles were very dirty, so the first step was to clean off the exterior and try to remove some of that old grease in the process. I soaked the axles in gasoline for a few minutes and that did a great job removing a lot of that old dirt.

The next step is to remove the old boot from the joint. I used a hammer and punch for this.

Mark the orientation of the joint pieces. This will aid in reassembly.

Next, remove the snap ring using pliers and slide the joint off the axle. Mine was on there pretty good and required some convincing from a hammer.

The joints can now be disassembled and the grease wiped off. It's a tricky, but eventually you'll find the right movement to separate the inner joint from the outer.

Now the reassembly can begin. Assembling the joint is tricky, but I found that using the marks from step 1 helps in lining up the cage with the inner joint. Then the balls can be clicked into place. Finally, rotate the assembly and slide it into the outer joint.

Now it's time to get greasy. Add the grease to both sides of the joint in the gaps so it completely fills the ball bearings.

Now assembly. First step is to put the new boot on. Next, slide the washer onto the axle, then the joint. It might take some convincing with a hammer. Hammer the boot onto the joint and repeat on the other side. CV axle rebuild/regrease complete!

It took me a while, but I finally disassembled the engine. I plan on sending the block, head, and crankshaft to a machine shop. Hopefully it won't need any major repair. Bores honed, crankshaft polished, and cylinder head rebuilt.

Parts Removed

• Cam Tower
• Head
• Belts and Rollers
• Oil Cooler
• Oil Pan
• Balance Shafts
• Oil Pump
• Pistons

Sent to The Machine Shop

I pulled the transaxle with plans to reseal it. There is quite a bit of oil and sludge all around it. The mounts didn't look bad, but the rubber is about 40 years old at this point. I read on Rennlist a few posts where folks are adding urethane to the mounts to help stiffen them. This helps reduce movement in the transaxle, providing better shifting.

I ordered some inexpensive urethane off Amazon. It has a Shore A rating of 55 which means it's still flexible, but should add plenty of support. Using urethane all the way up to 80 should be just fine. Here's a chart showing the various hardness levels.

I taped the mounts so contain the urethane.

I then applied the urethane using a standard caulk gun. Here's a link to the product: https://amzn.com/dp/B000RW1XCK

After it cured, it turned out really nice. The urethane is supportive, but still flexible. I am no longer able to move the middle mount section as easily as I was before.

Now that the engine is out, it was time to do some cleaning. I enlisted the help of my daughter and together, along the help of a degreaser, a toothbrush, and a pressure washer, we got to work. Below are some before and after photos.

Before

After

Now that the engine was out of the car, it was time to load it up on the engine stand.

Remove Clutch and Flywheel

I was able to hold the pressure plate with my left hand and break the allen bolts with a breaker bar.

The flywheel was a bit more challenging. I ended up locking the flywheel using a breaker bar and some bolts inserted into both the engine block and the flywheel.

Engine Transfer

With the clutch components off, I was ready to transfer the engine from the hoist to the stand. I used 12x1.5 100mm bolts to connect the stand to the block.

The rear hatch carpet was disgusting. The dirt, grease, and who knows what else had soaked all the way through to the lining on the back. I decided to pull out the carpet and attempt to clean it.

I used a steam carpet cleaner, a spray bottle of shampoo and a stiff bristled brush and went to work.

I sprayed this liberally and scrubbed with the brush, then I vacuumed all the liquid up with the carpet cleaner. I did this a few times, but it was still very dirty. I then took a hose to it and tried to forcefully spray all the grime away. Then went back over it with the carpet cleaner to remove all the liquid. Here's the result. I don't think it's perfect, but it's definitely much better.

The engine has been sitting for the last 20 years in a barn and was not only very dirty, but at this point every gasket needed to be replaced. Since the transaxle had already been removed to replace gaskets and clean, I decided to remove the engine out of the top.

Exhaust Manifolds

The first step was to remove the exhaust manifolds. I read that I would need to remove the studs due to space issues, but I was able to remove just the nuts and slide the manifolds down and out of the car.

Upon inspection I discovered that these manifolds were actually the steel manifolds from the 85.5+ models and not the cast iron from the early 944. This may be why I was able to remove them without removing the studs. Unfortunately both manifolds were cracked so I will be replacing them with the original cast iron parts.

Torque Tube Slide Back

The next step was to disconnect the torque tube brackets and slide it back about a foot so that the drive shaft is no longer connected to the engine. Here is an image with the torque tube slid back and the end of the drive shaft visible.

Accessory Pulley Removal

To provide a bit of room and avoid the radiator and hood latch, I removed the accessory pulley gear which is attached to the crank gear.

Removal Coolant Hoses

I drained the coolant and removed all the hoses connecting to the water pump.

I then removed the metal coolant hose near the exhaust manifolds.

Disconnect Wiring Harness

I disconnected all the wires and vacuum hoses from the engine. Below is a picture of the back of the engine. There were a few ground wires that were a bit tricky to get to.

Engine Removal Prep

With everything disconnected I was ready to lift the engine out. A few things I did differently than others.

1. I did not need to remove the radiator.
2. I did not need to remove the hood. This was a bit of a surprise.
3. I had the front timing cover off so I was able to remove the oil pressure wires. This allowed me to leave the engine wiring harness in the car and not disconnect the DME.

Engine Hoist

I connected the engine hoist to the two brackets. One in the back on the camshaft and the other near the accessory bracket.

Engine Removal First Attempt

I was ready to remove the engine. I realized fairly quickly that it was going to be a tight fit going out the top. Especially with the cross member left in-place and the intermediate steering shaft. The other obstacle is the bell housing, which required that I move the engine forward quite a bit before lifting. The problem of course is that it moved forward directly into the intermediate steering shaft. I aborted this attempt, put the engine back in place and removed the bell-housing.

Engine Removal Second Attempt

With the bell-housing removed, the second attempt went fairly smoothly. I was able to lift upwards immediately and then pivot the engine away from the steering shaft.

Success!

The early 944s have a steel fuel tank and that fuel turns to varnish and water after sitting for 20+ years. The inside of the tank looked awful so I decided to pull it, reseal it, and replace all the hoses.

Here's the tank after pulling it.

I decided on the POR-15 line of products to clean and reseal the tank. It involves 3 steps.

1. Degrease the tank. This removes a lot of the varnish and grime within the tank.
2. Unfortunately even after doing this step twice the tank still had a varnish smell and flecks were visible. I brought out the big guns, muriatic acid. I diluted it 4:1 with water and sloshed it around. That really cleaned up the tank nicely.
3. The Metal Prep etches the tank which gives the sealer something to grip onto. Here's a picture after that step was complete.

4. The sealer is next. It's a thin epoxy-like liquid in which you need to coat every surface inside the tank with. I rotated the tank for about 10 minutes and then spent the next 30 minutes draining all the extra liquid out. The results look fantastic.

I bought new bulk braided fuel hose from Belmetric and cut it to length. Here's the tank ready to go back into the car.

There is also some foam near the filler neck that I attempted to replace. Unfortunately the adhesive I used wasn't strong enough and the foam ripped off the tank during installation. I ended up just stuffing some foam in after it was installed. Getting that tank back in was a chore and I had to eventually bring out a jack for some extra leverage to squeeze it in.

There is an excellent article about replacing the fuel lines for a Porsche 928 (link). The article goes into detail on how to replace the hose section and re-use the connectors. After reading about a dozen articles about the 944 and fires I decided to begin the journey to replace all fuel hoses.

The first step in replacing the fuel hoses is to cut through the ferrule which holds the hose to the connectors. I accomplished this using a dremel tool with a cutting disk. It shot out a considerable amount of sparks, so be sure to do this away from any fuel vapors.

The original fuel line has an ID of 10mm, but it's much easier to find fuel hose in inches so I went 3/8" SAE 30R9 rated hose (link). I cut the hose to the exact same length as the original and then attached the connectors using fuel injection hose rated clamps. It's ready to be re-installed.

Here's a before picture.

We used Simple Green, Gunk engine cleaner, and a pressure washer. Here's my daughter helping clean.

Turned out great!

The gearbox was dirty and leaking quite a bit of fluid. I decided to remove and reseal it. The steps are outlined very well on Clarks Garage and so I printed out a checklist and got to work.

The first step is removing the shifter boot and the linkage bar which connects to the gearbox. I had a little bit of trouble pushing the linkage bar forward with all the foam insulation, but eventually I pushed it forward.

Next steps included disconnecting the rear axles from the transmission. Cleaning out the triple drive heads took the majority of the time, but I was able to remove all of them without any stripping.

Removing the coupler was tedious because I had to rotate the engine using the crankshaft bolt, then run back to the transmission to see if the coupler bolts were facing the right direction. It was a lot of back-and-forth, but with the help of a wobbler extension I was able to get both of these bolts off without any issues and push the coupler back. Then I disconnected the reverse light and marked which lead went where with fingernail polish.

I drained the fluid and then jacked up my home built transmission jack to support the gearbox.

Next I unbolted the 4 bolts connecting the gearbox to the torque tube along with the transaxle mounts. The gearbox was free. I started pushing it back and basically hoped the black plastic tube would be easier with a little more space. Lucky for me someone had already been in there and cut out one of the tabs so it could slide.

Finally it was time to lower the gearbox. It was a battle with the spare tire well preventing much movement, but with a little luck I finally was able to lower the gearbox.

Time to clean!

The parking brake needed to be adjusted as it no longer stopped the rear wheels from turning.

The first step is to unbolt the brake from the bracket which is attached to the body of the car. This provides access to the adjustment screw.

Adjusting the parking brake took a little bit of guess work. I would unlock the top bolt and then spin the adjustment bracket a few threads to tighten it. Then I would reattach everything, pull up on the parking brake and check the wheels. Clarks Garage states that pulling up on the brake 3 clicks should provide some resistance in the wheels so I kept adjusting until I hit that point.

I noticed that the fuel gauge never moved past the empty mark so I decided to pull and clean the fuel level sender. It has been sitting in old gasoline for 20 years so I figured it was due for a cleaning.

Here is what it looked like when I pulled the black cover in the trunk.

I spent some time cleaning up this area and then unscrewed the hex screwed and pulled the sending unit free. After some researching online, I fashioned a tool that would allow me to unscrew the bottom bolt.

After that success, things went downhill quickly. In trying to remove the outer sleeve, I broke one of the very fine resistance wires. I removed the wire and solder from both sides so I could measure and replace it. The original wire had a resistance of 67Ω/ft. I found a nichrome wire on amazon that has a similar resistance.

I soldered in this wire, put the sleeve back on and wired it in to the car. I measured the resistance with the float at the bottom and top and it measured 68Ω and 6.7Ω respectively. Clark's Garage has slightly different numbers, but these felt close enough.

It is time to install a new windshield. On these earlier 944s there is a metal decorative trim that goes around the windshield. The later 944s are flush mounted. These trim pieces are held in by these metal clips that are severely rusted on my car.

Here is a picture of the clips. These are mounted to posts on the windshield frame and then the trim slides in between the 2 pieces of metal. My clips are definitely not in this good of shape, but the cost for new clips is $10/ea and since there are 16 needed I will be reusing them.

I first loosened the grip that the clips had on the trim using a metal pick tool.

Next I used a hammer and pried the trim up little by little until it popped free. I definitely would have put a towel between the hammer and windshield if I wasn't going to replace it.

Today I took removed the fuel rail and the fuel injectors so they can be sent off to be cleaned. The fuel rail was pretty straight forward to remove. The most difficult part was removing the electrical clips. I ended up just removing the metal clip and then sliding the connector off and then re-attaching the metal clip. I'm sure there is an easier way, but I couldn't figure it out.